The place where
breaking news, BitTorrent and copyright collide

Search TorrentFreak

Last week the UK High Court ruled that several of the country’s leading ISPs must block subscriber access to The Pirate Bay. The decision is designed to limit traffic to the world’s leading BitTorrent site but in the short-term it had the opposite effect. Yesterday, The Pirate Bay had 12 million more visitors than it has ever had, providing a golden opportunity to educate users on how to circumvent blocks. “We should write a thank you letter to the BPI,” a site insider told TorrentFreak.

Last Friday the UK High Court ruled that several of country’s leading ISPs must censor The Pirate Bay website having ruled in February that the site and its users breach copyright on a grand scale.

The blocks – to be implemented by Sky, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media (BT are still considering their position) – are designed to cut off all but the most determined file-sharers from the world’s most popular torrent site.

On hearing the news a Pirate Bay insider
told
TorrentFreak that the measure will do very little to stop people accessing the site and predicted that “the free advertising” would only increase traffic levels.

It’s not possible to buy advertising “articles” from leading UK publications such as the BBC, Guardian and Telegraph, but yesterday The Pirate Bay news was spread across all of them and dozens beside, for free. The news was repeated around the UK, across Europe and around the world reaching millions of people. The results for the site were dramatic.

“Thanks to the High Court and the fact that the news was on the BBC, we had 12 MILLION more visitors yesterday than we had ever had before,” a Pirate Bay insider informed TorrentFreak today.

“We should write a thank you note to the BPI,” he added.

The blockade, which was not contested by any of the ISPs listed above, will be implemented during the course of the next few weeks. While that time counts down, The Pirate Bay say they are viewing the interim period as an opportunity to educate site visitors on how to deal with censorship by bypassing it.

“Another thing that’s good with the traffic surge is that we now have time to teach even more people how to circumvent Internet censorship,” the insider added.

In court papers released today, Mr Justice Arnold said that since the terms of the court order (how the blocks would be implemented technically) had been agreed to by the ISPs in question, there was no need for him to detail them in his ruling. However, The Pirate Bay told us that by taking a range of measures, any blocking technique employed by any ISP can be overcome.

First off they advise that the most simple solution is to use a VPN, such as iPredator or other similar services that
carry no logs.

These VPN providers cost money but there are free solutions too. Companies such as
VPNReactor
offer a free service that is time limited to around 30 mins per session, but that’s plenty of time for users to get on Pirate Bay and download the torrent files they need. Once users have the torrents in their client, the blocking has been bypassed and even with the VPN turned off, downloads will still complete.

Pirate Bay are also recommending the use of
TOR
but only for the initial accessing of their website and the downloading of the .torrent files. Torrent clients themselves should never be run over TOR, the system isn’t designed for it and besides, transfers will be pitifully slow. TPB also point to I2P
as a further unblocking option.

While the above options will cut straight through any kind of blocking with zero problems, Pirate Bay are also advising people to change their DNS provider. By permanently switching to a DNS offered by the likes of
OpenDNS
and Google, users of UK ISPs that censor The Pirate Bay purely by DNS will have a free and effective work around.

As readers will recall, there are other simple unblocking solutions where domain names are blocked by ISPs but their related IP addresses remain unfiltered. These include the
MAFIAAFire
plugin and the simple action of typing a site’s IP address directly into a browser. However, in this UK case there is a problem with these solutions.

According to court papers made available today, it seems that on the advice of an expert and after being agreed to by the ISPs in question, IP address blocking of The Pirate Bay is now part of the injunction. This means that the techniques in the above paragraph simply won’t work.

To circumvent this kind of problem, The Pirate Bay can be accessed via a 3rd party – a so-called ‘proxy’. One of these purely for the job is being operated
by the UK Pirate Party.

Quite how long this particular proxy stays up remains to be seen though. The Dutch Pirates tried a similar thing and were
quickly pursued
by rights holders. Nevertheless, there are countless free proxies online that can do the job just as well.

In just a few weeks the block of The Pirate Bay will be implemented and despite all the coverage and millions of extra visitors to the site, thousands of users will remain unprepared. Those patient enough to type a question into a search engine will regain access to the site in a few minutes.

But will the impatient start pumping more money into the pockets of the BPI? That’s the big question.

Before you start rushing the streets with political propaganda, just cut off from the ISP that cut you off TPB. simple as that.This entire game is about money and money alone, if the ISP's will see that they are losing clients and money due to internet censorship, they won't censor a single page. Even better, their lawyers would fight against internet censorship at court, just so they wouldn't lose any money.

As I said, this entire game is about money and money alone. OUR money. I know who's bills I'm paying, how about you?

Unless they start blocking text, they can't stop this. All you need is a hash (example: 398F492AB328D). This can be found on any website, email, IM, forum, twitter, etc.). With just a hash it can be converted to a magent link. Using the magnet link you will eventually connect with peers in a distributed network. There is no central site to attack/block. Data can always be broken up, bits re-arranged, encryption. Computers share data over a network, that is what they do. You can't build a system that can possibly detect copyrighted information as it is easy to alter it. Unless they stop computers from being able to send zeros and ones, you can stop file sharing. The whole idea of this is ridiculous. Anyone who thinks this is achievable is a moron. But none of this has really been around stopping pirates. All governments want is for ways to track & censor its citizens, and not have to worry about pesky laws that require law enforcement to get warrants and court oversight. After all the injustice system just gets in the way of spying and snooping. Terrorists, file sharing, and child porn. All of these reasons will be given to convince people that the government needs unfettered real time access to everything you do. And if you don't support these measures, clearly you are guilty of something and now support terroism and child porn. And at least in the US, the general population is too dumb to realize it and will just along with it. Everything our forefathers fought for we are just throwing away. The US Government is the most successful criminal organization on this face of this planet.

Things such as this are like disease, now hold on a second I'm not against TPB. Basically, imagine hat the media organizations, large overly complex organism with little awareness of their consumer's individuality are an animal. And things such as TPB are highly efficient yet comparatively simplistic and small in comparison, a disease/virus. If time has told us anything, no matter how hard you try a new disease will always emerge that completely evades the efforts of the larger organism. A lesson that should be learnt by anyone with all but the most wholesome of reasons for pursuing internet privatization.

It's not as easy as punishing ISPs, who are in fact between a rock (the justice system) and a hard place (their customers). Virgin is the only fiber provider in my area, and I need this sort of speed to work -- the alternative is ADSL coming through wires that have been set up in the early XX century (I kid you not, they're hanging from a crappy pole like in some 1920's movie).

Isn't that why they are going vertical with the aerial drones? Heck, with WiFi getting faster and with multiple radios, it's only a matter of time before "we" create our own network and no longer need the internet.

Rave47 well said dude ... Everybody listen ! listen !ALL IS ABOUT MONEY ,OUR MONEY , THEIR POWER IS IN OUR POCKET !Without our money they loose power they loose everything , so stop to be foolished by them and start to boycott them , after they all - IPS , trolls etc will cry for your money becouse your money gives them power , thats the game - but too many people are too foolished brainwashed to see or think about that , stop to sleep people , start to think and dont let others to take your rights away , to choose what is good or not for you , is simple just stop purchase their products , services etc , if enough people will doing that all of these parasites will fail , becouse without money , our money and our work , all of these fat bullshits cant survive So remember , no money = no power , no money for bribes , for hoardes of lawyers , lobbyts etc , no power = no censorship = freedom

lame as hell. i used tpb only to see thepromobay (no lies, litterly, i never used the torrents, just thepromobay) and as a result I'm punished for listening to artists which don't feed of the mainstream pricks, quite frankly I hate the UK now. Infact, I've ordered myself a soviet hat and I'm going to wear it and claim I'm Russian. If they take me to court I'm simply say, FU, I'm Russian, I'll nuke ya if you don't STFU. KK, get me government?!

the easiest way to reverse this moronic need for censorship and control is to simply stop paying for broadband you can live without it for a month and hit the likes of virgin sky etc for millions they'll soon stop the blockades come on you can do it switch off your computers for a month fuck the bullies

Fuck them. Fuck them right in the eyes.I haven't bought music, a book, rented a movie or been to the cinema in over a year. Why? because of the attitude of these fucks, their attacks on individuals and the internet generally. And so it will continue until they fuck off and die.Before this I might have been spending 50 pounds a month. I hope millions of others have been doing the same and making the twats suffer.One might criticize because of lost revenue to Bands. Sorry, fuck you too for contracting with these snakes. Get some self respect then come back and ask me for money.Do you use iTunes? then you're a CUNT. Jobs got the death he deserved. Get some fucking self respect and get off the Rotten Apple bandwagon. Do you pay for Spotify or a dozen others? then you're a CUNT. Get some fucking self respect.If just 1 in 3 people pull the plug the whole festering tower will come crashing down. It's going well already so it sounds. Don't buy their products until they offer a grovelling apology and beg governments to shred their copyright legislation.

He was correct. The magnet links do download the torrent files. No one said anything about those files being stored on TPB.

To be more specific. The magnet links download the info dictionary from a torrent file obtained from other peers. That info dictionary is then used to create a trackerless torrent which is saved in the same location as any normal torrents you download. Trackerless torrents don't have an announce key, they have a nodes key instead.

Before you start rushing the streets with political propaganda, just cut off from the ISP that cut you off TPB. simple as that.This entire game is about money and money alone, if the ISP's will see that they are losing clients and money due to internet censorship, they won't censor a single page. Even better, their lawyers would fight against internet censorship at court, just so they wouldn't lose any money.

As I said, this entire game is about money and money alone. OUR money. I know who's bills I'm paying, how about you?

Unless they start blocking text, they can't stop this. All you need is a hash (example: 398F492AB328D). This can be found on any website, email, IM, forum, twitter, etc.). With just a hash it can be converted to a magent link. Using the magnet link you will eventually connect with peers in a distributed network. There is no central site to attack/block. Data can always be broken up, bits re-arranged, encryption. Computers share data over a network, that is what they do. You can't build a system that can possibly detect copyrighted information as it is easy to alter it. Unless they stop computers from being able to send zeros and ones, you can stop file sharing. The whole idea of this is ridiculous. Anyone who thinks this is achievable is a moron. But none of this has really been around stopping pirates. All governments want is for ways to track & censor its citizens, and not have to worry about pesky laws that require law enforcement to get warrants and court oversight. After all the injustice system just gets in the way of spying and snooping. Terrorists, file sharing, and child porn. All of these reasons will be given to convince people that the government needs unfettered real time access to everything you do. And if you don't support these measures, clearly you are guilty of something and now support terroism and child porn. And at least in the US, the general population is too dumb to realize it and will just along with it. Everything our forefathers fought for we are just throwing away. The US Government is the most successful criminal organization on this face of this planet.

Things such as this are like disease, now hold on a second I'm not against TPB. Basically, imagine hat the media organizations, large overly complex organism with little awareness of their consumer's individuality are an animal. And things such as TPB are highly efficient yet comparatively simplistic and small in comparison, a disease/virus. If time has told us anything, no matter how hard you try a new disease will always emerge that completely evades the efforts of the larger organism. A lesson that should be learnt by anyone with all but the most wholesome of reasons for pursuing internet privatization.

It's not as easy as punishing ISPs, who are in fact between a rock (the justice system) and a hard place (their customers). Virgin is the only fiber provider in my area, and I need this sort of speed to work -- the alternative is ADSL coming through wires that have been set up in the early XX century (I kid you not, they're hanging from a crappy pole like in some 1920's movie).

Isn't that why they are going vertical with the aerial drones? Heck, with WiFi getting faster and with multiple radios, it's only a matter of time before "we" create our own network and no longer need the internet.

Rave47 well said dude ... Everybody listen ! listen !ALL IS ABOUT MONEY ,OUR MONEY , THEIR POWER IS IN OUR POCKET !Without our money they loose power they loose everything , so stop to be foolished by them and start to boycott them , after they all - IPS , trolls etc will cry for your money becouse your money gives them power , thats the game - but too many people are too foolished brainwashed to see or think about that , stop to sleep people , start to think and dont let others to take your rights away , to choose what is good or not for you , is simple just stop purchase their products , services etc , if enough people will doing that all of these parasites will fail , becouse without money , our money and our work , all of these fat bullshits cant survive So remember , no money = no power , no money for bribes , for hoardes of lawyers , lobbyts etc , no power = no censorship = freedom

lame as hell. i used tpb only to see thepromobay (no lies, litterly, i never used the torrents, just thepromobay) and as a result I'm punished for listening to artists which don't feed of the mainstream pricks, quite frankly I hate the UK now. Infact, I've ordered myself a soviet hat and I'm going to wear it and claim I'm Russian. If they take me to court I'm simply say, FU, I'm Russian, I'll nuke ya if you don't STFU. KK, get me government?!

the easiest way to reverse this moronic need for censorship and control is to simply stop paying for broadband you can live without it for a month and hit the likes of virgin sky etc for millions they'll soon stop the blockades come on you can do it switch off your computers for a month fuck the bullies